Whole Wheat Banana Bread!

Mini Whole Wheat Banana Bread Bundts with Mini Chocolate Chips

This recipe does not involve chickpeas. I know I hinted that my next few recipes would feature that versatile legume, however tonight was not the night. Tonight was the night that I wanted to try out my new mini-bundt pan (one of our awesome wedding gifts). I thought about doing mini bundt cakes, but honestly, I'm a little cake/cupcaked out after the wedding. I waned to make something a little healthier too, so I decided on whole wheat banana bread! This is a recipe that my mom has been making since I was a little kid, and has always been one of my favorites. I think she originally found it in one of those spiral bound, community recipe collections - possibly from the La Leche League, of which my mom was a proud member (yeah, she was a crunchy mom way before that was all the rage :). She made some alterations to the recipe along the way, then when I went vegan it was one of the first things I tried my hand at veganizing.

I really love this recipe. It smells like comfort and home. It's also great to take to work, school, as a hostess gift, etc. Who doesn't love banana bread? And, despite being made with whole wheat flour, this bread doesn't taste "healthy" - it tastes rich and moist. I highly recommend lightly toasting a slice and drizzling it with a bit of maple syrup. That along with a nice strong cup of tea- heaven. You can absolutely make this recipe even healthier- when I'm making this just for Andrew and I (and know we'll end up eating at least half of it the day it's made -ok, honestly if Andrew's involved it probably won't last a day), I usually cut the oil in half and replace it with either an extra banana, or a few TBS of apple sauce. I'm also not terribly fond of overly sweet banana bread, the ripe bananas add quite a bit of sweetness on their own, so I'll also often cut the sugar to 1/4 cup when making it for myself. However, when I'm planning to share, I make the recipe as is. It's still a much healthier alternative to the banana breads that rely heavily on at least a cup of sugar and a cup of oil.

You can make this in a loaf pan, as muffins, mini muffins, mini-bundts- basically whatever shape you want. It still tastes awesome. I hope you like it :)

Whole Wheat Banana Bread

• 1 cup mashed, very ripe bananas (about 3)
• 1/3 cup coconut oil, canola oil, or melted earth balance
• ½ cup brown sugar or maple syrup
• 2 TBS ground flax seeds + 4 TBS water (Chia seeds or Ener-G Egg Replacer to equal 2 eggs may also be used - if you use the chia seeds though, you'll want to sort of grind them up a bit first)
• 1 ¾ cups whole wheat flour
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ¼- ½  cup  hot water (adding more if dough seems too thick)
• ½ cup chopped walnuts nuts (my personal favorite), or chocolate chip (optional) 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a medium bowl, add the flour, salt, and baking powder. Whisk with a fork to combine, and set aside.

In a slightly larger bowl, mash the bananas until they're gooey and mashed to your hearts content using a potato masher or fork. Add the oil, brown sugar/maple syrup, ground flax seeds and water and mix well. Add the dry ingredients to the wet alternately with the hot water (though sometimes I just dump it all in- nothing explodes). Mix until smooth. Fold in nuts or chocolate chips (or both!) if desired. Pour into a lightly oiled loaf pan, and bake for 55-60 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean. Let cool, slice and serve!

For mini-bundts, bake for approximately 20 minutes.

For muffins, bake for 20-25 minutes.

For mini-muffins, bake for 15 minutes or so.